#Team Ladybug

[acquired-stardust]

Touhou Luna Nights PC 2019

[vgadvisor]

[satoshi-mochida]

Touhou Luna Nights ‘5-Year Anniversary’ physical editions announced for PS5, Switch - Gematsu

Selecta Play will release “5-Year Anniversary” physical standard and limited editions for Touhou Luna Nights for PlayStation 5 and Switch in North America and Europe later in 2024, the distributor announced.

The standard edition will include a printed color manual and special sleeve. The limited edition includes a printed manual, an original soundtrack double CD, three alternative inlays, a serialized certificate of authenticity, and a SteelBook case, all housed in an oversized collector’s box.

Touhou Luna Nights is currently available digitally for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam.

Watch the physical edition announcement trailer below. View a set of screenshots and package shots at the gallery.

Physical Edition Announce Trailer

North America

Europe

[gamesline]

A Perfectly Sharpened Blade - Blade Chimera (PC) Review

Team Ladybug made a new Metroidvania! John reviewed #BladeChimera and thought it was peak. Here's his full thoughts. Read the full article

[ladyirisreviews]

Drainus - Review

I'm very excited to review this, this is the third game of Team Ladybug, a developer team I am quite fond of, they made 2 of the best Metroidvanias out there and it might seem weird that their next game following 2 Metroidvanias was a shoot em up, but if you take a look at their 2 previous games, it does make sense.

Touhou Luna Nights is basically a fangame of the Touhou games, a bullet hell series, and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth had elements that were heavily inspired by shoot 'em ups, specifically, the element change system, which is similar to how Ikaruga works.

So them making a shoot 'em up seems very logical to me.

Another interesting fact is that this is their first completely original game, both of their previous games were based on an already existing franchise, so that makes this game even more special.

I'll start with a brief summary of the plot.

You follow Irina, a young woman who fights to destroy the evil galactic empire that has control over countless planets, she counts with the help of the incredibly handsome Gehnie, an artificial lifeform sent from the future.

He manages to steal the empire's secret weapon, the Drainus, and contacts Irina so she helps him free the universe from the empire.

The plot is fairly straightforward, but the inclusion of obtainable disks scattered through the levels, that contain conversations between characters on both sides of the conflict, help flesh out the world.

Now, moving out of the plot, because I don't want to spoil too much, let's get into the gameplay.

When you boil it down, it's a very classic shoot 'em up, but it has some features that make it stand out a lot, for starters, the whole draining mechanic.

When you enter draining mode, you drain all energy-based projectiles you come in contact with, and when you exit draining mode or run out of meter, all of the stored energy auto-targets the enemies.

It's very reminiscent of Ikaruga, like how the upgrade system is reminiscent of Gradius, but they add their own, very unique spin to the system.

You start with a basic weapon, and each upgrade item will unlock the next equipment you have equipped, it can be a different laser weapon, a fleet of mini ships with different properties, missiles, or even a stat boost.

You can unlock them with special points you get after defeating enemies, and after purchasing them you can equip them wherever you want.

The equipment level you are currently into is displayed in the top middle by the power-up meter, once you get all of your equipment unlocked, any new upgrade items will charge your bombs.

You can also buy hard upgrades for your Drainus, like unlocking more equipment slots, increasing the draining gauge, and increasing the number of bombs.

The upgrades also work like your life meter, when you get hit you lose your highest upgrade, and if you get hit while you have none at all, you lose a life, which I think is quite friendly for players who aren't that good at shoot 'em ups, like me.

But if you want a greater challenge, there is the option to enable 1-hit kills, making the game way harder.

You can also change the speed of your ship whenever you like, making maneuvering in tight spaces easier.

The actual levels are very dynamic, there's a wide selection of enemies, environments, and transitions that keep the level fresh and fun the whole time.

And as a cherry on top, the bosses are extremely cool.

Most of them have more than one bar of HP, and when it depletes they morph into a completely different machine, the music also aids these encounters greatly.

The whole OST is incredible, really.

These are all the first boss!

The artwork is also incredible, it's in my opinion the best artwork in any of their games to date, it's something to admire.

So in a few words, this game has very tight controls, gameplay, upgrade system, and difficulty customizations, while also counting with an incredible OST and artwork.

So if you like shoot 'em ups, it's a must-play, and even if you don't play a lot of shoot 'em ups, it's a game anybody can enjoy due to its difficulty options, it's just that good.

I can see myself getting lost in doing challenge runs on this game, like I have been doing in Touhou Luna Nights and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, except on this game it's way easier to determine the rules because of the levels of customization.

I really mean it when I say: Go play this game.

[simseez]

this is a great game

[gamereporter]

Blade Chimera: metroidvania cyberpunk chega com descontos e novidades

Os fãs de jogos no estilo Metroidvania já podem se preparar para a chegada de Blade Chimera, o novo título do aclamado estúdio Team Ladybug. O jogo, que será lançado no dia 16 de janeiro de 2025 para Nintendo Switch e Steam, já está disponível em pré-venda na Nintendo eShop com descontos especiais para os jogadores. Até o dia 15 de janeiro, quem adquirir Blade Chimera na Nintendo eShop receberá…

[cat-chilling-out]

I need them to switch again, but like casually and for fun

[twohitgames]

Blade Chimera retrasa su lanzamiento en Nintendo Switch y PC

PLAYISM y WSS Playground han decidido retrasar la fecha de lanzamiento de Blade Chimera para permitir mejoras adicionales de calidad y pulido. El último metroidvania del Team Ladybug, Blade Chimera, estaba previsto para su lanzamiento en agosto. Blade Chimera es un metroidvania completamente nuevo y original del Team Ladybug, el equipo detrás de los metroidvanias en 2D aclamados por la crítica…

[bonesbugs]

Adrien takes full advantage of his face post-reveal

[keybladespirit]

50. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

This is such a good little metroidvania! I played another game (SMT Synchronicity) by this studio a while back and this one proves to me that they just really "get" what makes this style of game work on a fundamental level. There's some jank in both good and bad ways, but I feel like the fact that I was able to have such a good time without needing any context into the larger Record of Lodoss War franchise is a really good sign. I certainly would have enjoyed the story a lot more if I knew who all these characters were, but the core themes and basic arc of Deedlit's journey hit really well regardless. Highly recommended.

[acquired-stardust]

Touhou Luna Nights PC 2019

[goatlilly]

Miss Terra

It’s okay Marinette. Just breathe. I don’t know about you guys, but I think this hero has a lot to learn from her young teammates about cutting loose and having fun. Still, it’s hard to say how the Minnie Miraculous holders would fair without their capable leader/big sister looking out for them. It’s a good thing she has Wayze to calm her down whenever she gets too stressed.

So, uh, yeah. Here she is—Turtle Marinette! Aka, Miss Terra. To be honest, I had trouble not just copying the Trutle Marinette that @zoe-oneesama made a while back, but I managed to make something different that I still like. She was also the hardest to color, because her pallet requires more mixing than the others did.

[satoshi-mochida]

Blade Chimera releases today digitally for the Switch and Steam.

[gamesline]

The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 47: Nintendo Showed It

The latest Gamesline podcast is live! John and Maverick are here to chat about the Switch 2's big reveal, Blade Chimera's top notch quality, and Hatsune Miku in Fortnite. Read the full article

[ladyirisreviews]

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth - Review

This is the second Team Ladybug game on Steam, it came after Touhou Luna Nights, which I reviewed.

Despite being interested in it only because it was a Team Ladybug Metroidvania, it did a great job of making me interested in the source material, which I will be reading into very soon.

To explain the plot of the game, first I need to give some context.

The setting is based on a series of light novels called Record of Lodoss War, they date back to the 80s, and another novel was released not too long ago, 12 years after the last one, and this game serves kind of like an introduction to this new series of novels in a way.

The game does give you some backstory, enough to establish its own, coherent narrative, and even without reading the novels, I feel this game can be enjoyed, along with its themes.

Though I would imagine reading the novels and then playing this game would be nice for the fans since you would know all the characters and their backstories.

The plot of the game is pretty simple, you are told there was once a group of heroes who brought peace to the land of Lodoss, and that the only girl in the group, Deedlit the elf, fell in love with a human.

She wakes up in an unknown place, with her memories feeling hazy, she must travel the labyrinth she finds herself into and discover what she is truly doing there.

As I mentioned, you will find several characters from the original series, from protagonists to major antagonists, but despite the game not explaining each character, you can see a theme in Deedlit's journey, and it's one of sorrow and loss.

The game doesn't have that much dialogue, but in the little it has it's able to convey those emotions at the end of the game, there is not much else to talk about in terms of plot, so it's time to talk about the gameplay.

The gameplay is just a bit similar to Castlevania Symphony of the Night, but there are big differences, for one, you can aim in 8 directions for your attack, and you also have a bow you can freely aim.

Magic works similarly as it does in Touhou Luna Nights, but there is one more mechanic that mixes things up, very early on in the game, you get wind and fire spirits, and you can switch between which one is active.

This changes the element of your attacks, and when you have any of them active, you can level up the other one by defeating enemies, by reaching the max level, you automatically regain health while having that spirit active, getting hit removes a whole level though.

Another property the spirits have is that you completely absorb the damage of the same element, which replenishes your MP, which reminds me of Ikaruga in a way.

I like this system very much, at the start I thought it would make things too easy, but you die pretty fast if you are not careful, and the HP recovery rate is not that high to feel like it removes danger completely.

I especially like this system in bosses that use both of the elements, it's very satisfying for me to learn their patterns to optimally defeat them.

The level design is also alright, it's the typical "unlocking an ability or key to progress" kind of design, but it also takes the spirit changing into account, including obstacles that need it to be surpassed.

While the level design isn't as great as in Touhou Luna Nights, it's still pretty good.

Enemies are also pretty standard, what stands out are the bosses, as I mentioned before, they put the spirit changing to the test, and they all have at least one tricky attack that might need some figuring out.

The boss rush has the same issue it had on Touhou Luna Nights though, they have the original health, making it so the first few die in just a couple of hits.

The game has some extra features though, after you complete the game once you can pick a number of modifiers to the game, like always staying on level 1, 1 HP, spirit levels being always 1, or retaining all of your learned spells.

For me, that increases replayability quite a lot, I kind of wish these types of settings were retroactively added into Touhou Luna Nights, these challenge runs in Metroidvanias are very fun to try, and giving you the choice to pick exactly what you want makes me more willing to try one.

And that is pretty much all there is to the gameplay, it's pretty solid overall.

The only stuff left to mention is the graphics and music, and they are both fantastic.

Team Ladybug did a great job yet again, the sprite work is incredible, just like with Touhou Luna Nights, visually the game is eye-candy, though the afterimage of the Deedlit can be bothersome sometimes, you can turn it off if you want.

And that's pretty much it, I heavily recommend this game, even if you never heard of Record of Lodoss war or haven't read the novels yet, I think this game holds up on its own, And if you are a fan of the series already, it will be a very cool experience.